Resignation round-up 3

1) The Resignation log doesn’t include defections to the Labour party, but here are three recent examples: Andrew Duffield (Hexham cllr and parliamentary candidate);  Elizabeth Shenton (Staffordshire cllr, and parliamentary candidate in the 2008 Crewe and Nantwich by-election); and Rosie Jolly (Liverpool cllr).

They all offer fairly standard explanations. They criticise the national Liberal Democrats for the government’s failures in social justice and public services. Since 2010 many other Lib Dem-to-Labour defectors have made similar points.  That isn’t to belittle them.  On the economy, the NHS and social welfare, Lib Dems in government and parliament have certainly supported some unjust and ineffective measures, even within the narrow room for manoeuvre of a coalition. (And of course Lib Dem members haven’t been shy in saying so.)

But while I understand why people might leave the party on this basis, I’m bemused that they should switch to Labour.  The Labour Party hasn’t offered any distinctive alternatives, hasn’t even committed to reversing many of the measures they claim to reject.  And the Labour government was hardly just or sensible, or even very distinct from the Conservatives – especially with the Private Finance Initiative, their support for the house price bubble, and for the financial sector’s irresponsibility.  All this is even before we get on to wider issues: the Labour Party remains centralising and managerial, with a good dose of authoritarianism.  How can someone who’s been involved in the Liberal Democrats overcome these worries?

I’d like to understand rather than condemn, partly because I try to be a generous soul, but also because I don’t want to underestimate our opponents.

So, why might anyone move from the Lib Dems to Labour?

Ambition? Elizabeth Shenton acknowledges that she has national political ambitions, and Rosie Jolly had been deselected as a Lib Dem candidate, but I suppose will remain a councillor with Labour.  Ambition is a standard accusation against political defectors.  But (as someone who has no political ambitions myself) I don’t think it really works.  Ambition is an essential part of democratic political culture.  I’m glad that some liberals have personal political ambitions, or we’d have no councillors, MPs or MEPs.  Of course ambition on its own isn’t enough, it can always slide into selfishness or egoism.  But I can’t see it as a reason for condemning or dismissing defectors. 

The value of party politics? Perhaps it is better to be in a national party than none at all.  I’m sympathetic to this.  Not being a member of a major party can seem like ‘opting out’ of serious political participation.  It is all too easy to be right all the time, and cultivate a sense of smug moral superiority, if one isn’t part of a national political project.  Similar criticisms can be made of joining a tiny group such as the Liberal Party or National Health Action.  But even here, the Green Party seems much more satisfactory than Labour for someone with liberal instincts.  (Not that I advocate joining them, by the way, as I’ve explained before!)   

Being part of a club?  Politics isn’t just about national positions, especially for local councillors.  It can good to be part of a local club, and being a lone independent councillor must be pretty isolating, especially for someone elected in a party campaign.  If Labour offers the most welcolming club on the council, that must be a temptation.  Lib Dems have certainly benefitted from this over the years, too.    

Either/or culture?  Labour and the Tories define themselves by not being each other.  Many people in Britain define their politics as anti-Tory before anything else.  This politics of anger seems rooted in popular culture as much as specific policies or philosophy. (I’ve devoted more energy than most to defeating Conservative election candidates, but still don’t really get it.)  Liberals have done a lot to challenge either/or political attitudes, but perhaps defectors to Labour have been sucked into it.  It seems a pity they don’t have more confidence in being liberals, but then they’ve not been helped by our national leadership –  not only policy decisions since 2010, but in the failure to cultivate a core constituency for the Liberal Democrats (as Simon Titley and others have said for a long time).  

Hmmm… so perhaps joining Labour shows a certain lack of imagination in a former Liberal Democrat, but I’m still puzzled…

 

2) Fred Carver (a former Camden councillor) has also resigned from the Lib Dems, although may continue to vote for us.  He explains on his blog:

‘So I suppose this is my letter of resignation from the Liberal Democrats. It is not really. I’ve read a fair few letters of resignation from Lib Dems over the last few years and artistically they have been disappointing…’

He doesn’t disappoint at all, in an insightful and very funny analysis of the Liberal Democrats’ culture, and British political life more generally.  Some of it might seem rather too close to the bone (‘Fact: most normal people don’t know what a Riso is. Most Liberal Democrats have a thorough understanding of how to maintain and repair an RA4200’). It’s already received a lot of attention among Lib Dem blogs, but worth having a look if you haven’t already.  My one observation, though, is that it is a little London-centric.  For him Brent East may be part of the founding myth, but down my way Newbury still has a certain resonance…
 

3)  For consistency’s sake I should also note a new member of the Liberal Democrats: Aberdeenshire councillor Fergus Hood has joined from the SNP.

How did the ex-Lib Dems do?

In the cascade of local election analysis, here are some initial results from candidates who have left the Liberal Democrats since 2010.  (But, as usual, I’m not concerned with those who’ve joined Labour or the Tories).* 

Green Party Allan Weeks lost his seat on Hampshire County Council to UKIP (he came third, the Liberal Democrats were fourth); while Clive Smith lost  his seat on Worcestershire County Council to the Tories (he came third, the Lib Dems were fifth).   

In general, the poor Green showing is notable: only 22 councillors were elected nationally, a gain of 5.  Even their share of the vote is not being picked up on national projections, and as of this morning it seemed their average vote was down 3% to 7% in seats where they stood.  I find it puzzling that they have not been able to attract many more former Lib Dems (amongst others).  After all, UKIP show that ‘outsider’ parties can do well…  It may be of some solace to the Greens that by growing networks slowly they won’t be as fractious as UKIP is (and I’m sure will continue to be), but they should still be doing much better.

Independents: Stuart Parsons, (Independent, Save the Friarage) was elected for Richmond, North Yorks.  He wasn’t standing against a Liberal Democrat opponent.  Derek Giles and Steven van der Kerkhove were elected to a two-member division in Cambridgeshire (beating Tories, UKIP, Lab, Lib Dem, Green, in that order).

Mebyon Kernow: Derek Collins was elected to his town council, but came in third place for St Austell Poltair on Cornwall Council, which Jackie Bull won for the Liberal Democrats(!). Former County Councillor Tamsin Williams, who moved from the Lib Dems to MK in September 2012, did not seek to defend her seat.

Liberal Party: I’ve not seen any post-2010 Lib Dems standing for the Liberal Party, so haven’t looked systematically for their results (although I notice Fran Oborski was elected to Worcestershire County Council, and they secured two seats in North Yorks).  But there continues to be no sign that the party is moving beyond its scattered cores, or offering an attractive home for any but a handful of former Liberal Democrats.

* This is bound to be incomplete.  Add a comment to tell me about more!

 

 

The Green Option?

I can’t understand why a liberal would join the Tories or Labour, but the Greens seem to be a different matter.  A number of Liberal Democrats have joined the Greens since May 2010, for reasons that most fellow-liberals won’t find unsympathetic.  In their own words (more or less), here are some examples:  Alexis Rowell (sometime Camden cllr), Clive Smith (Worcestershire cllr),  Alan Weeks (Hampshire cllr),  Robert Vint (Totnes cllr).  (I should also mention Martin Ford – formerly Lib Dem, now Green Party councillor – and others from Aberdeenshire, although that sorry business predates the Coalition).

The distinction that I’ve heard over the years between ‘practical but sullied’ Liberal Democrats, contrasted with ‘idealistic but unrealistic’ Greens seems over-simplistic.  There has been a constant exchange of activists backwards and forwards between the Green Party and the Liberals/Lib Dems, for many different reasons. (This dates back to the Ecology Party of the early 1970s, the ‘Green Voice’ initiative of the late1980s etc etc). Shared attitudes go beyond the environment, to cover social questions, and an interest in bottom-up, participatory public life. (Conrad Russell’s chapter on Green Liberalism in An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Liberalism encapsulates much of this.)  These similarities are why Green leaders tend see it as a strategic imperative to attack the Liberal Democrats.  Similarly, the admirable Green Liberal Democrats have struggled to find a distinctive role within our party precisely because their message is so uncontroversial for most members.


My observation of the Green Party during the last 15 years, in a city where they are part of the political landscape, and for two years administered the local authority with the Liberal Democrats, is that Greens are diverse ideologically, but can be roughly categorised into three strands: (1) a small number of highly committed environmentalists; (2) ‘angry leftists’ using the party as their latest vehicle; and (3) environmentally-aware community-minded people, some of whom I’d be happy to see in my party.*  Nationally, the Green Party is less ideologically coherent than the Liberal Democrats, with all sorts of more or less articulated strands reflected by a churn in members. The ‘angry leftists’ are organised nationally, while the few liberals (as far as I can see) are not, and perhaps by temperament are less suited to factional struggle.  (After all, sound liberals are often not even that good at factional struggle within the Liberal Democrats.)   Green Party organisation across the country is patchy, so liberals will encounter varied local groups, more or less congenial, but it’s no surprise that the direction of travel for members/activists at the moment is one way.   However, there doesn’t yet seem to be any sort of critical mass of movement among activists or councillors.** So while individual liberals may find a political home in the Green Party, I’ll be surprised if it becomes an alternative pole for liberal politics.    

 

* Admittedly members of the third strand sometimes seem rather smug and sanctimonious, and their lifestyles could often match their rhetoric more closely, but the latter is the case for some favourite liberals, too…

**Voters may be another matter.  In the perennial search for a Nice Leftish Party, ‘consumer lefty’ voters now seem more sympathetic to the Greens than to the Liberal Democrats.  This demographic might not to be an asset to any party organisationally or intellectually, but their votes can be very useful, as in the London Mayoral election (although Scottish and Irish experience shows us that Green electoral fortunes can go down as well as up).   But this blog isn’t really about them.